I fish a local private pond that is loaded with huge bluegill. I would love to know how to tell if it is safe to eat fish from? It is not near any factories or anything like that. I cant see any signs that people dump anything there. But the water is naturally dirty mucky swampish. It is 40 acres. Max 20ft deep and has low water clarity. Weeds/lilys everywhere with a small creek flowing in and out. Fish look pretty healthy aside from a few here and there that looked like they got attacked. It holds perch, bullhead, pickerel, bass, and bluegill. Let me know If you think I will be safe or I will get sick. Only one way to find out for sure but I would like to get a general idea first.

One other thing to put things in perspective... I've eaten snakehead and bass caught from S.FL. canals that run near highways, houses, and God knows what else. Water was dirty as dirt, and I'm still fine :-) I think it would be relatively safe to eat ONE and wait a few weeks...

One other thing to put things in perspective... I've eaten snakehead and bass caught from S.FL. canals that run near highways, houses, and God knows what else. Water was dirty as dirt, and I'm still fine :-) I think it would be relatively safe to eat ONE and wait a few weeks...

i hear its safe to eat a few bass a month from our canals mvorbrodt snakeheads i heard dont carry the mercury levels that the bass do but if you do eat bass eat the smaller ones as they will have less mercury then bigger bass

Thanks for all the replies, I am going to eat a couple of bluegill filets and wait a while and see how things go. I doubt there is much of any human pollution if any. If I make a habit of catching and eating them I will get it tested. I also read that it is a small fish and usually feeds on insects and what not that don't contain as much mercury. The smaller the better